I’m really pleased to say we’ve found a new home to run our Flutewise Club. We tried it out last Saturday and it is fine. We all enjoyed ourselves and learnt a great deal - especially learning the degrees of the scale by playing ‘What time is it Mr Wolf’! You had to be there! Having a go on the bass flute, alto flute and piccolo was also very popular. It’s an easy place to get to if you don’t live too far away. We had flute players join us from Brighton, Ashford and Caterham, so it’s good to know people are willing to travel. There will be a session every month. More details and dates can be found here. I’ve some very exciting plans for the future, so I hope lots of you can join us. We are aiming to make it very social so parents and family can come and join us for a cup of tea and cake or biscuits at the end of each session.

I hope you have been enjoying the half term holiday. It is lovely to feel spring in the air. I’ve spent a bit of time doing some work on the website and planning events. I’m really looking forward to seeing lots of you soon at our various events. Woldingham is looking particularly exciting this year. I’ve just been looking at the plans for the bedroom accommodation, either single rooms or twin rooms all en-suite. That strikes me as absolute luxury! The content we are planning is also very exciting. There is still time to book your place if you haven’t done so already.

I’m also very pleased that we will be able to run our Flutewise Club in Portslade, Brighton once a month (thanks to Music for All). The dates for the rest of this year will be available soon.

We’ve also got our great weekends coming up with Marko Zupan and Ian Clarke. Don’t miss out on those, book your places soon if you haven’t already.

I popped up to Just Flutes on Monday and met up with my lovely friend Helga who is from Norway. I also brought some things back for JJFox to inspect. Any idea what they are?

I had some brilliant news this week. I applied for some funding from Music for All last year and we’ve been awarded some of it! This means I can develop Flutewise Clubs in the area where I live. It will give local flute players the chance to meet regularly and I will also be able to have a few new Flutewise Apprentices coming on board. If you are interested let me know.

This is JJ Quantz (JJ for short) and he loves the flute - well he would have to living in our house

I hope you’ve had a lovely Christmas and New Year holiday. We have, made all the more special having JJ arriving just before Christmas. He is a Maine coon and he is very, very friendly.

The New Year promises to be exciting for everyone involved in Flutewise. Things just seem to get better every year.

I’m very pleased about our residential course at Woldingham which will take place between 8 and 11 April. We will be in different bedroom accommodation this year due to plumbing work going on in the Main House where we usually stay. This time we will have twin rooms all with ensuite bathrooms! That is luxury. We will also have use of two enormous common rooms as well as having the amazing Millennium Centre to work in as usual. If you are thinking of coming, hurry up and book your place as places are limited and there are quite a lot of bookings in already. I know it is going to be an excellent course.

There are plenty of other things going on before that. We had a lovely Flutewise Club in December. I’ve just decided on the date for the next one, Saturday 16 February. Places are extremely limited for this one as it will probably be at my house - with JJ watching over us :)

March is a very exciting month with events with Ian Clarke and Marko Zupan. I think we all know Ian Clarke, even if you haven’t met him you might have played or heard his music - Walk Like This, Zoom Tube, Great Train Race etc. Ian will be doing a full day event in Brentwood on Saturday 23 March from 10.00 am until 6.00 pm. The morning session will be for players over Grade 5 standard and the afternoon for players of all standards (8 to 18 year olds only at this one). Family, friends and anyone else interested will be able to come along to hear the music we’ve worked on and Ian perform some of his own pieces at about 5.00 pm. Full details will be available soon.

The weekend before this will be very busy. Marko Zupan will be coming to the UK with his pianist, Minka Popovic for some very exciting events. This is what is planned: Friday 15 March - individual lessons will be available with Marko at Just Flutes

Last week we had our first Flutewise Club here in not very sunny Portslade. It was quite a small affair as I hadn’t really advertised it, but it was extremely pleasant. The cake and biscuits were particularly good :) No, seriously, so was the flute playing.

After a scale warm up game everyone had a go on playing the alto and bass flute and the piccolos as well as my black grenadite flute made by Guo. To get a feel for these flutes we played through an arrangement of Greensleeves several times.

We had a go at some yoga breathing exercises that are illustrated on Practice Room Yoga. The videos on that site are worth checking out.

SmartMusic is something else we had a look at. If you don’t know this product I urge you to have a look. It is extremely popular it the US but although it has been around for years, it has never really taken off in the UK. I’d love to know why. It’s an excellent practice tool.

I often get sent music for review and I thought this was an excellent opportunity to do this from a different angle - get young flute players to tell us what they think of new publications. You can see their responses at the end of this post.

We finished the session by having a go at Pink Panther and then some rounds from Eight Rounds by Johow, published by De Haske. They are excellent.

I’ll be announcing new dates for 2019. Maybe you would like to join us. We had one girl planning to come all the way from Bulgaria but unfortunately her parents couldn’t arrange suitable flights. I think she’ll be coming along sometime soon and local families have offered to do some social activities with her, so if you have a little way to travel we can include you!

Reviews

Thanks to all of our young reviewers, they got to take the music home forever. Photos of the covers of the books mentioned and others can be found at the bottom of the post.

To have a parent email me to say her daughter had said the our event at Whigift School was ‘The best day of her life” makes all the effort that goes into Flutewise worthwhile.

Enormous thanks to everyone one who made it possible, Fiona Myall from Whigift, Abbie Burrows, Gareth McLearnon, Carolyn Kelly and Tomoko Watson, but more importantly all the lovely young flute players.

I've just come back from another really wonderful course in Croatia. This year we had 10 British flute players who came along with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. With the Croatian flute players and friends added in there were more people this year than ever! It was so much fun and a totally magical experience for everyone to perform in the beautiful Kastel Vitturi.

We started the course on the Wednesday morning and we were due to have classes for the rest of the week, go to the island of Brac on Sunday, have 2 more days of classes and then have the final concert on Tuesday evening. Often things don't go to plan in Croatia ... which is fine! This time it was the weather forecast for the Sunday. Really big storms were promised. So we decided to change plans and got to Brac on Friday. This meant a change in plan over what we would perform for a concert there.

I've been doing a course in this part of Croatia for 15 years (I've been doing courses in Croatia for even longer than that, which makes me feel very old!). My friend Najda, who was one of the key people who started the course in Kastela for local children, came along with her grandson, Luka! It seemed like only last year Luka's mum and uncle were involved as children. Luka was our only beginner this year and everyone enjoyed and loved him. He did so well and having him there was a great excuse for teenagers to get involved with songs and clapping games. We all just loved coming up with new rhymes for "There's a spider on ..."

We worked quite hard each day and achieved a great deal.

On the first evening of the course we had a Flutewise pizza party and concert for all the British people. This was an opportunity for everyone to meet and get to know each other and for the flute players to perform in an informal setting if they wanted to. It was lovely.

Pizza concert at Villa Soulavy

On Friday morning we left for Brac, travelling by taxi, ferry then coach. We explored the park and said hello to all of the animals, the parrots and mad ostrich being very popular. Our lunch followed and then we rehearsed our concert in the amphitheatre which we were really impressed with the improvement since last year. It was hot. Very hot! One of the locals told me it was 55 degrees in the sun! We waited until it was cooler before our concert which consisted of Max, Sophie and Tomoko playing some trios, Cecilia and Thea playing a duet and everyone playing three pieces with backing tracks. I had recently bought myself a Ultimate Ears Megaboom blue tooth speaker. It was intended for listening to music indoors, but I thought I'd give it a try outdoors as we hadn't much time to prepare the concert. It was amazing! It totally filled the outdoor amphitheatre with sound. It's a tradition in Croatia for us always to finish any concert with Ian Clarke's Walk Like This. Everyone loves it.

Getting ready for the concert - in a bit of shade

The next day we had off so British families had the opportunity to do a full day of sight seeing. It was back to work in the Ballet School on Sunday.

Time went quickly and what seemed like no time at all we were in Kastel Vitturi. It is a truly magical place to perform a concert. We were very lucky to have the wonderful flute player Marko Zupan there at the same time as us and he joined us for our concert. Another Marko, the brother of one of our course members also joined us as a guest to play a solo on his recorder. He is a Grade 8 player and he plays very well.

We'd been working on an 'animal' theme for the course and tried to make the music fit, I'm not sure if we did. Our programme was:

We had a great audience who seems to really appreciate our work. Certificates and medals were given out at the end and then we all went back to the terrace at Villa Soulavy for another Flutewise Pizza Party.

Hannah receiving her certificate with Liz and Marko Zupan

I'm really grateful to all of the British families who came all the way to Croatia to experience this extraordinary course with me. I'm also grateful to the Croatian flute players and everyone else who made it possible - in no particular order thanks to Damira and Boris, Mark, Marko Zupan, Ana, Helena, Jadranka, Roko, Paola, Ivan, the people at Park Prirode Sutivan and all the lovely local people and anyone else I've forgotten! Thanks. Let's hope it can continue for many years to come.

Click on the links below for photos and videos - there are more to come

Photos from our course in Kastela, Croatia August 2018. Not in any particular order but show our Flutewise Pizza Concert on the first night, working at the Ballet School, our trip and concert to Park Prirode Sutivan on Brac, concert and certificate/medal giving in Kastel Vitturi on the last evening.

"I enjoyed it enormously"

- now that's a comment we like to see from an examiner!

I'm an extremely proud and satisfied flute teacher as I've just received the mark sheet and certificates for an ABRSM ensemble exam. Have you heard of this exam? I hadn't until I stumbled across it on the ABRSM website and I'm so pleased I did, it is excellent! I was looking for something for a group of students to do to slow down the 'grade exam race'. All music teachers come across the situation where youngsters and their parents want to take the next exam as soon as possible. It really isn't a good idea just to go from grade to grade as so much technical and musical development can be missed. This exam really addresses this situation.

The exam is offered on 3 levels

Primary (Grades 4-5)

Intermediate (Grades 6-7)

Advanced (Grade 8 and above)

It is for 2 to 10 players without conductor and you can choose your own programme.

Max, Sophie and Tomoko entered the Primary level. They could play a programme lasting for 12 minutes and they chose:

Autumn Leaves - their own composition/improvisation based on the pentatonic scale with extended techniques

It helped enormously as they were able to work as a family and supported each other so well. I absolutely love group teaching, I can't understand why it isn't just the norm for music education. Everyone learns so much more and so much more efficiently working as a group. This group improved so much this term, their progress has been outstanding. Very aspect of their playing has come on leaps and bounds; I've been especially pleased with their dynamic development - the one thing the examiner didn't mention in his report, but his comments were very inspirational.

Max, Sophie and Tomoko were invited back to the venue where they took the exam, Under the Bridge Music Studios in Brighton, to perform in a charity concert last Saturday afternoon. It proved to be a perfect way to celebrate gaining an A mark and distinction in their exam. Many congratulations to them and thanks to the ABRSM. I'm looking forward to using this exam again.

I'm just recovering from another great Flutewise course at Woldingham. As always we had wonderful course members, house staff and visiting staff and everything about our stay at Woldingham School was really good. My highlight has to be the CAKE!

This beautiful cake was so generously provided by my friend Tomoko and family. Thank you so much

It's hard to believe I set up Flutewise 30 years ago. That was even before many of the members of staff on our course were born. I hope I can manage another 30 years! I love the cake has a flute on the top, but more importantly I love the photos around the edge, showing events from Flutewise past. More photos below.

We had so much fun on the course. It was a slightly different one to normal with visiting staff each day. This meant our ensemble pieces and warm ups weren't as intense as normal. There are only so many hours in a day and we really did fill them. The house staff included Simon Williams, Lorna Brown, Joleigh Saunders, Abbie Burrows and Carrie Hensel. On Wednesday we were joined by pianist and ABRSM examiner, Chris Baxter, he stayed with us for the rest of the week. Carolyn Kelly also joined us on Wednesday as did Pasha from Just Flutes - he talked about flute care and brought us goody bags (a huge thank you Pasha and Just Flutes). We had a very special guest for the afternoon and evening, Philippe Barnes who performed for us and taught us loads about Irish Flute playing.

On Wednesday morning we had an 'Ensemble Competition'. It was an 'unfair' competition as 2 of the ensembles had already been rehearsed before the course. It was really good to see and hear people really working hard and focusing, trying to win. Each group even had to design and make a programme. The performances were all great and, in true Flutewise fashion, everyone won - equally. The prizes were very well received - a cabbage, a swede, a cucumber, a bag of carrots! What more could anyone want?! I’ve got video recordings which I will sort out soon.

Thursday was dedicated to everyone working on their own solo with piano accompaniment with Abbie and Chris. Later in the day we had a student concert. I was really impressed with the difference in playing from the morning to the final performances. Every single person took on board what they should do to improve their piece. Again, they were recorded and I’ll sort them out as soon as I can.

Gareth McLearnon was with us on Thursday and as well as working on The Flutewise Theme which he composed, he also brought his enormous collection of flutes for a ‘show and tell’ session and he worked with the more advanced players on technique.

We had 2 girls training as Flutewise Apprentices, Jess and Pippa. I’m so very pleased they are on board. As part of their training they had a to run a workshop creating a piece using a poem. The results were lovely. Again there is video to come.

I was very much looking forward to Friday as we had Rachel Brown come along and share lots of information about playing Baroque music. Rachel is such an expert and so very good at making it all easy to understand.

There were lost of other things happening during the course - workshops on circular breathing, piccolo playing, vibrato, we had a ceilidh (that’s a bit of Scottish dancing) and every night we had a relaxing bedtime concert.

There are photos below but there will be lots more soon. Also there is an email from the mum of one of our course members, she is happy I share it with you.

Hi Liz

I just wanted to say a huge thank you for Flutewise at Woldingham, Layla had a fantastic time.

It's always a bit of an unknown quantity sending a child on a course - most of the time they can only give you a vague account of what they ate, who they met and that's about it. But in the case of Flutewise, Layla spent the journey home (for a good couple of hours due to the M25 being a bit busy) giving us a detailed account of what she learnt about playing high notes on her flute and piccolo, what she learnt about looking after her flute, the technical exercises she did, the pieces she enjoyed playing, how great the teachers were, how she was inspired by the apprentices, how much she enjoyed the ensemble competition, how good the evening concerts were, and how much she loved her medal and gifts.

So I can wholeheartedly say that Flutewise is worth every penny, is a fantastic opportunity for a child, and that we'll definitely be back. THANK YOU!

Many thanks again, Tina

One of our course members, Lizzie, also wrote this:

I loved every aspect about Flutewise: the solos, the ensemble competition, the choir, the staff, and the food! However, most importantly, I made new friends and had a fantastic time!!

Over 30 years of Flutewise I've faced all sorts of challenges with events. Our day at Tonbridge gave me a new one - snow! We were due to have the event on 4 March, but the school closed the venue because of the snow. Luckily we managed to reschedule the vent for the 18 March feeling very confident the weather would be fine by then. We had a few days of lovely spring weather and then more snow! It wasn't quite as bad this time so we could go ahead.

The event was held at the Schools at Somerhill in Tonbridge, a lovely venue. It's with a big thanks to Pat Daniels for making this happen every year. The morning was a BFS workshop for adults with Abbie Burrows and Gareth McLearnon. Patrick Onn also came along with his travelling flute shop. In the afternoon it was a fun filled packed Flutewise event. Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves and learn so many new things about the flute. As well as warming up exercises, flute choir playing, seeing Abbie and Gareth's growing collection of amazing flutes, everyone really enjoyed being extremely creative in the Scale Game.

As it is Flutewise's 30th anniversary we had cake! Yummy.

The day ended with a very short performance to parents. It was really lovely, hearing the music and watching the snow out of the window.

Many thanks to everyone who made the day so special. Looking forward to the next one.